‘Game of Thrones’ Doesn’t Plan Those Jon Snow-Daenerys Parallels

Game of Thrones fans have generally presumed that George R.R. Martin’s “Song of Ice and Fire” refers to an inevitable pairing between Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, something the HBO adaptation has seemingly made clear with a host of parallel imagery. At least one major Season 6 reflection wasn’t intentional, however, as Kit Harington calls it a “happy accident.”

You’re warned of minor Game of Thrones spoilers from here on out, but where Season 6 drew a number of parallel images between the seemingly-destined pair; either Jon or Dany reborn in iceand fire with their naked backs to the camera, or overhead shots of the pair in a crowd, Harington tells THR the latter instance occurred purely by chance. The idea for Jon to emerge from the “Battle of the Bastards” gasping for air came from Harington himself, as director Miguel Sapochnik ran out of time and money for the conflict’s original climax:

That piece came about with me and director Miguel Sapochnik having a conversation. Everything had backed up a bit and we were running out of time to shoot what we had intended. Miguel and I talked about what my greatest fears are. And as it happens, one of my greatest fears is a human crush — those horrible stories you hear about stadiums where people literally suffocate to death because they can’t get out of other people panicking. I thought if we could do that in this sequence, that could be really terrifying for the viewer.

Strangely enough, without even thinking about it too much, when he breaks free and climbs his way back up, in a way it’s like a rebirth for him. He doesn’t give up. He doesn’t stay down. He fights his way out. It looks a lot like the shot when Daenerys [Emilia Clarke] is being held aloft by the free slaves. That was a happy accident. We didn’t realize how those two would be compared.

Of course, there’s no guarantee Daenerys and Jon will meet in Season 7, let alone the series, as the Dragon Queen has formidable distance and enemies between her army and Kings’ Landing. Jon Snow remains the newly crowned “King in the North,” but that position has a poor history of stability, especially when your half-sister (or cousin?) harbors a bit of scheming ambition.